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Catherine Thompson

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Catherine Thompson is a reporter for Talking Points Memo. Before joining TPM, she worked as a research assistant to investigative reporter Wayne Barrett. She is a graduate of New York University, where she served as the deputy managing editor of NYU's student newspaper, the Washington Square News. She can be reached at catherine@talkingpointsmemo.com.

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Catherine

Two students who allegedly led their Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brothers in a racist chant caught on video were expelled Tuesday from the University of Oklahoma, university President David Boren announced.

The house "mom" who took care of the University of Oklahoma's Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity was allegedly shown in a video that surfaced Monday using the N-word repeatedly.

The video surfaced hours after the university president announced that the frat was being kicked off campus because of a separate video that allegedly showed frat members singing a racist chant that included use of the same racial slur.

When the University of Oklahoma kicked a fraternity chapter off campus Monday over a video of frat members allegedly singing a racist chant, there was an unexpected casualty: the frat house's black chef.

The New York Daily News on Tuesday used its front page to condemn Republican senators for signing an open letter to Iran warning that a potential nuclear deal could be null once President Barack Obama is out of office.

The tabloid's front page prominently featured Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rand Paul (R-KY). It also branded the 47 senators who signed the letter as "traitors" who tried to "sabotage" the President's nuclear negotiations.

It's been more than a week since Missouri gubernatorial candidate and state auditor Tom Schweich (R) took his own life, but the state's political community is no closer to understanding what truly prompted the tragedy.

Schweich was reportedly planning to go public the same day that he died with allegations that the state Republican Party chairman, John Hancock, had been spreading misinformation about his religion. Some political figures have since demanded that Hancock resign his post over what Schweich believed was an anti-Semitic "whisper campaign" designed to hobble his support among evangelical Christian primary voters.

Hancock's supporters say he's no anti-Semite and argue there's no evidence of a "whisper campaign," though. Hancock's radio co-host, Democratic consultant Michael Kelly, put it this way in a call to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter: "Anyone who rushes to the conclusions that are being drawn here is not thinking about the issues that surround a person's decision to commit suicide.”

We may never know exactly what pushed Schweich over the edge to suicide, but those who knew him have said he was extremely distressed about the alleged whisper campaign.

University of Oklahoma President David Boren said Monday afternoon that the school may take action against individual members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity over a video that allegedly shows them singing a racist chant.

Missouri Republican Party Chairman John Hancock appears to be secure in that position despite accusations that he carried out a "whisper campaign" about gubernatorial candidate Tom Schweich's (R) faith -- but his future as a radio host with local station KMOX may be less certain.